What Did Trump’s Hard-Hat Tour of the Fed Accomplish?

DealBook|What Did Trump’s Hard-Hat Tour of the Fed Accomplish?

Andrew here. Watching Jay Powell grimace as he stood next to President Trump on Thursday was quite the sight. Trump’s effort to embarrass the Fed chair about the central bank’s renovations budget — as a way to pressure him to lower interest rates — was most likely ineffective.

In truth, it was probably counterproductive: Given the Fed’s interest in portraying itself as independent, the theatrical tour is likely to only make the Fed hold firm on not cutting rates. We dive into that, as well as what companies are saying about tariffs. Plus, we’ve got some A.I. hacks from the C.E.O. of Sanofi.

Budget beef

Jay Powell has — for now — survived his latest encounter with President Trump, a hard-hat tour of the Fed’s headquarters.

It was a rare visit on Thursday by a sitting president to an institution that global investors fear is losing its independence as the Trump administration repeatedly attacks it over interest rates, and a $2.5 billion renovation project, Vivienne Walt reports. (Trump also presented Powell with a document saying the costs had ballooned to $3.1 billion, a figure that Powell quickly fact-checked.)

Trump, the seasoned developer who has threatened to oust the Fed chair, on Thursday told reporters he “would fire” a project manager if that person had overspent on one of his real estate projects. He later seemed to back off on dismissing Powell, but made it clear that he wants lower rates.

The Fed meets next week to deliberate just that. Economists widely expect that the central bank will stand pat.